Etymologically
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indiligentia

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Forms

indīligentia f (genitive indīligentiae); first declension[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin indīligēns (“careless”) + -ia.[2][1][3] The base is in- (“not”) and dīligēns (“careful”), from dīligō (“to love, value”), which de Vaan connects only with legō2 (“to collect”);[4] that verb goes back to Proto-Italic *leg-e- and Proto-Indo-European *leǵ-e/o- (“to collect”).[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLL finds it first in Plautus' Persa, where indiligentia comes eighth in a list of vices.[3][5]

Semantic evolution

It means want of care or negligence, and with a genitive want of concern for something.[2][6] Varro uses it among the causes for which days of work are lost, Cicero of carelessness in sending letters, and Caesar of the negligence of the Aedui.[3][7] Pliny the Elder has estates neglected through carelessness,[7][3] and Tacitus uses indiligentia veri, indifference to the truth.[7][5] Fronto blames carelessness in choosing a word.[6][3]

Timeline

  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus lists it among vices.[3][8]
  • 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it of carelessness in sending letters.[7][8]
  • c. 50 BC – Caesar uses it of the negligence of the Aedui.[7][8]
  • 98–115 AD – Tacitus uses it of indifference to the truth.[7][8]

Meanings

Noun

  1. Want of care, carelessness, negligence.[2][7]
  2. (with genitive) Want of concern (for), indifference (to).[2][5]

References

  1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d e f Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  4. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  5. ^ a b c Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
  6. ^ a b Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
  7. ^ a b c d e f g Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  8. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de